The Parable of the Ten Servants

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power, and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the word.

I'm going to share a word out of Luke 19. I'm going to share a parable, and it's one of my, if not my favorite parable. It's the parable, the 10 servants, which you might be thinking that's kind of a weird one to be your favorite, but I'm hoping that you guys get something tonight too, that it'll be one of your favorites by the time I'm done. One of the reasons that parable is one of my favorites is, like I said, I love transformations and seeing them. And right before Jesus tells this parable is the story of Zacchaeus.

That is one of my favorite stories in the Bible as well. Why? Because Zacchaeus was a notorious sinner. He had no excuses. It's just.

He was just. He was a greedy. He was a greedy little guy. And. And there was one day Zacchaeus came to and decided he wanted to see Jesus.

And so Jesus was passing through Jericho. I'm just going to just hit on this briefly before I get into the parallel parable. Jesus was passing through Jericho, and it says, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, so he showed up where Jesus was at. He couldn't see over the crowd, so he ran ahead, climbed a tree, and waited for Jesus to pass by. Jesus passed underneath his tree.

He looked up and said, zacchaeus, I must be a guest in your house today. And he went home. They went to Zacchaeus, took him to his home. And the encounter he had with a God who was willing to accept him just the way he was produced a change in him that changed his life like that. And it's why I love that story.

It's an incredible story of transformation. When he experienced the grace and the love of Christ, he turned from a man who was full of greed. He was a tax collector, a chief tax collector. And the Bible says he was very rich. And so he had made his money off the backs of his people, collecting off the backs of the Jewish people, collecting taxes for the Roman government and tax creditors notorious for jacking up the price and then skimming off the top.

So he made his wealth off the backs of his own people. And just one encounter with a loving God who accepted him just the way he was produced a change in him that changed who he was. And when he experienced that, he went from somebody who was bound by greed and evil into a giver. And he said, I will pay back. I will give half my money to the poor, and if I stole from anybody, I'll pay him back four times as much.

And that's the transformation of Zacchaeus. And I love that story because it's a notorious sinner who encounters a loving God, a holy God, and we see how he. How he takes them in and transforms him in a moment. And the last thing Jesus said to Zacchaeus was, he says, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. Verse 10 of Luke 19 says, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

And then immediately after that, Jesus tells this parable. And in verse 11, if you guys would stand with me for the reading of the word, we're going to be reading out of Luke 19, verse 11, to verse 27 out of the NIV.

And it says, while they were still listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable. Because he was near Jerusalem, and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said, a man of noble birth went into a distant country to have himself appointed king, and then to return. So he called 10 of his servants and gave them 10 minas. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back.

Verse 14. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king. He was made king, however, and he returned home. Then he sent for his servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. Verse 16.

The first one came and said, sir, your Mina has earned 10 more. Well done, my good and faithful servant. His master replied, because you have been trustworthy in very small matter. Take charge of 10 cities. The second one, second servant came and said, sir, your mina has earned five more.

His master answered, take charge of five cities. Then another servant came and said, sir, here is your mina. I have kept it laid away on a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you didn't put in, and you reap what you did not sow.

His master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man, taking what I didn't put in and reaping what I didn't sow. Why then didn't you put my money on Deposit so that when I came back I could have canceled it with. I could have collected it with interest. Verse 24.

Then he said to those standing by, take this mina away from him and give it to the one who has 10 Minas. Sir, they said, he already has 10. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given. But as for you, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. Verse 27.

But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. Lord, I thank you Father, for your word. Lord, I thank you God, for the transforming power that's contained in it. Lord, I thank you Father, that your source of truth is available to us. And I pray that you speak through it tonight.

Lord, I pray God, that we would be transformed by what we hear. And we see you do tonight. In Jesus name, Amen. You guys can be seated. So Jesus is telling a parable about himself and it says why he's telling the parable because there's some confusion about the kingdom and he's wanting to clear it up.

And it's the confusion between his first and second coming that was a common confusion for Jews at the time. Even the prophetic writings of him, of the Messiah, they thought his coming and kingdom would come all at once. And he's trying to clear that up. And so he's telling them this parable, and he's telling them this parable about himself getting to. Trying to get him to understand that he's going to leave and come back.

So he tells him the story about a man who has servants. And he gives them each a mina, which is about three months wages. And he tells them to put the money to work until he returns. Then he leaves and he's made king while he's gone. And we can see from verse 27 that it doesn't end well for those who reject the king as they are put to death.

The reason I really like this parable is because there's no guesswork in it. I like easy answers and it's laid out plain and bare for us to see. And I like that, like it or not, he's coming back. And the point of the story is he's clear clearing up confusion about his kingdom.

The Master was there with them, with these servants. He gave them each a gift, a really valuable gift. And then he leaves, he's made king. And he comes back and asks them. He gives them a gift and he tells them to invest what he's given them and to earn a profit from it.

And then he comes, he's made king, he comes back and ask them what they did with what they were given. And part of this lesson he's wanting us to see is that this is the era or the age we're living in. This is important to understand that we're living in the time between Jesus first coming and Jesus second coming. That sounds simple. You might be like, oh, that's good.

Minister Eric, thank you for the deep theological facts, but there's. Sometimes we can live like we're confused about that. And I'm hoping as we break this parable down a little bit, you can understand why I say that it's important to understand that if you're going to understand this teaching on kingdom, and so understanding that, having that settled in our mind, it should leave us with this question. Why did two servants get a well done and more added unto them? And why did one get rebuked?

The first guy comes in, but he gives them all. He gives them all an amount of money and. And he gives them all the same instructions. He leaves, he comes back, the first guy comes in, he says, what have you done with that? And he says, I've made 10 MENA.

I've increased it 10 times over. And he was put in charge of 10 cities. He gets a reward. Second guy comes in, he says, what have you done with yours? He said, I've increased it five times.

Gives him, he puts him in charge of five cities, there's a reward. The third guy comes in and he's got nothing to show. The first two guys were good stewards with what they were given and received rewards and increase. Third guy comes in and he hadn't multiplied what he was given at all. And it seems like he got a little bit different of an attitude.

We can see it in the words of the third servant. He says, I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant.

Seem like a strange response to you. The guy gave him a lump of money and said, go invest it. See what you can make. I'd like to have more friends doing that for me. And so he comes back, so what'd you do?

Well, I was afraid of you. You're a hard man. And the king says, I will judge you by your own words. And when I heard those words, I immediately thought of words that echo through my house. My kids will probably all cringe a little bit when you hear me say this, it reminds me of the words that the Lord spoke over the nation of Israel in the Book of Numbers, Numbers 14, Verse 28.

The nation of Israel is grumbling. It's right. They're right on the verge of taking. Taking the Promised land. The Lord's led him out of slavery in Egypt.

And they're there, and they get there and they're doubting that he's going to do what he says. And so they're grumbling, complaining. They said, there's no way we can. We can defeat these people. And the Lord says, just as you have spoken, so shall it be for you.

I say that my kids have heard that many times in our home. Because when I hear them grumbling and complaining like, we never get this. It's like, just as you've spoken, so shall it be for you. So when I hear the Master say that, it reminds me of the words that the Lord spoke over the nation of Israel. This is the same God.

He doesn't change. Jesus is telling a parable about himself. His principles don't change. He doesn't waver. And that's something that should be noted, that our mouth can dictate our future.

That can be a little scary or not, depending on what you do with your tongue, but it's worth noting. So the king says the servant's words dictate his own future.

So when we ask ourselves the question, why did two of them get more. Why did two of them invest what they were given and find themselves blessed? And why did one do nothing and get rebuked? And you might be saying, just for that, just for that reason, too invested one didn't. I get that.

I understand that. But why? Why? And I think part of the answer is how he saw the king, or really how he thought of him.

How you see the king and how you think of him is going to directly affect how you see yourself and how you think of yourself.

And he had a distorted view of him to begin with.

Why the fear?

Didn't he freely give him the money?

Why would he say, you're a harsh man.

What has he done up to this point that would create that third servant to have that mindset of his king?

You ever invite somebody to church and they'd say, if I walked in the back door, I'd probably burst into flames, bro.

Oh, if I came to church, I'd probably get struck by lightning.

Based on what?

What has he done to this point that would cause the third servant to think that way? Did he rebuke the second servant for not doing as much as the first servant. If he was a hard man and if that was his character, wouldn't that second servant been trembling to come before him, only earning half of as what the first servant did? That wasn't the case. That wasn't the attitude he had.

That wasn't how he saw his king. The third servant did, and we could see it in the results and what he produced.

This. A different version of this parable is told in Matthew 25. Jesus told It's a different version that was on the Mount of Olives. This was nearing Jerusalem outside of Jericho after the Zacchaeus encounter. But he tells a parallel parable, very similar.

Three servants all get a sum of money. Their sum's a little bit different, though, and it says he gave one and it depends on the translation. You have five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to another based on their abilities.

So it wasn't that he expected them to do something with. Like I said, it's a God that doesn't change. It's not like he expected him to do something that he was unable to do when he asked him to get a return on his investment.

This is less about the amount of what we earn or don't earn and more about where our heart is at and our willingness to be obedient.

I think that servant could have came in, you know what? I don't know if it's possible. He might have lost it trying and could have came before him and said, you know what? I did my best. I got nothing to show for it, but at least I tried.

I think he would have got a better reaction out of the Master than I was afraid of you because you're a hard man. So I stuck it in my sock drawer. That's about all he showed. I think the third servant's problem of accomplishing nothing is one sadly many Christians have is because how we feel about God is going to directly affect how we feel about ourselves. And it's going to really directly affect where the position of our heart is and what we're willing and able to accomplish for God.

Most people will live up to the truth they believe about themselves.

There was an identity problem, among other problems with this third servant. The one that was most prevalent was his twisted view of the Lord, which led to a twisted view of himself. I don't think he thought himself capable of earning a profit, and that's exactly what he did. He earned nothing.

And it's a problem I think Many of us can have. I'm not saying this to be condemning. I'm telling you it's a struggle that many of us can have. I think there's a couple reasons he has that problem. One, we just talked about a distorted view of God, but I think mostly, and I think even more than that, it's what that distorted view produces, and that's the distorted view of himself, which comes from how we believe God feels, how he believes God feels about him.

If you believe that God is mostly disappointed in you, that he mostly tolerates your presence. I know I'm speaking to people in here. I've been doing this a while. I know this is the first time I've preached in this church, but I've gotten to do this over at the Lucille Building many times when we've been at that ministry 10 years. And I've got to mentor and speak to people over those 10 years.

And I know this is a common struggle. It's a common struggle. People have this belief that God. Oh, he may love them because he has to. You know, maybe they said the prayer like they get in.

I got in on a loophole and he kind of now he has to love me, but he certainly doesn't delight in my presence, his thoughts about me. I mean, he's got to be somewhat disgusted with me. I know I still struggle and I haven't reached the point that I want to be at yet. And so at best, he probably tolerates my presence. That's a distorted view of God and distorted view of yourself, because that's not what the Word says.

When you put your faith and hope in Jesus Christ, you've been justified by his blood. You've been made perfectly holy in that moment.

And when you do that, you begin this process. You immediately go into this process of sanctification, which is the process where he takes you and he turns you more and more into his glorious image. But it's important to remember that you're still justified while you're in this process. So that even in your moments of struggle and weakness. Listen, I'm not talking about somebody who claims to be a Christian and lives in intentional, repentant, intentional, habitual, unrepentant sin.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a sincere believer who's put their faith and hope in Jesus Christ and in that moment was made perfectly holy according to his word and is now walking through this process, but still may have a struggle. The want to is there. The want to is there. But they have either a struggle with sin and they're.

Or they're growing. They're just not where they want to be yet. And so they take on this identity of being less than who they are, and they have a view of God than. That is less than what it should be. And when we have that view of God and of ourselves, even when we read stories like this in the Bible, it causes to interpret His Word in a way that produces condemnation because we automatically identify with the third servant.

We read this story, we completely skip over the guys who did the right thing and were blessed for it. And our eyes focus right on this third servant who struggled and was punished. And we think, what an unfair God. That's somebody who's struggling with condemnation. That's a twisted view of God.

Jesus is telling us this parable. The reason he's telling us this story is so we would know what's coming, so we could hear well done and receive a reward. I loved what Pastor Tim said in his giving message about how God is encouraging and. And wants us to succeed and wants us to be blessed. And that's why Jesus is doing this.

That's why I love this parable. He's leading us into a relationship with the Father that produces obedience, stewardship, and sacrifice. He's trying to lead us to a victory. He's giving us the answers to the final exam. It's why I love this parable.

I love easy answers. I love it when I don't have to put together the puzzle to find out, to find, to see the picture. I love it when there's not a. I don't have to pray and fast for a week to understand what he's saying. He makes this one plainly simple. It's like he gives us the answer to the final exam.

He said, this is going to happen. Listen to me. It's like a teacher giving us the answers to the test. I had a teacher in high school. His name was Mr. Kochlaser.

He taught a class called journalism. His class consisted mostly of him singing songs and telling jokes. I loved his class. I took it every year of high school. And they kept giving me credit for it.

It's how I got half my English credits. But about three times a semester, we'd walk into class and he wouldn't have his guitar. And he'd have. And we'd all sit down and he'd get like this. He'd go, look at me.

Look at me. I want everybody to look at me. Look at me. So there's going to be a Test tomorrow. This is going to be on the test.

You can write it down. You can use your notes on the test.

Why did he do that? Because he wanted us all to pass. He's probably like, I know these guys. It's probably the only chance most of these idiots are ever going to have a. Getting a.

But I. I don't know. But he wanted us to pass. And this is like Jesus is doing the same thing. He's saying, look at, look at. This is going to.

This is going to. This is going to happen. You're going to face this. You're going to be in this position. I'm leaving.

I'm going away. I'm coming back as a ruling reigning king, I'm leaving you with something before I go. And I'm going to expect a return on my deposit. What am I going to find?

But if we're convinced he's disappointed in us, that he tolerates us, at best, that's not how we read it.

We identify with the third servant we think we have to be because we don't have much to offer. So we have his mindset. You're a hard man who takes what you did not put in and reaps what you did not sow. And an idea of a loving God becomes foreign to us. And we see him as judgmental and even unfair.

I preach at transformations, and in prison, I'm bringing you the same stuff I bring them. It's the most common struggle I find, is that people, it's not that they don't believe in God, it's that they don't think God believes in them. And they've been hurt and rejected so many times, so many of them, and so broken, they're not going to open themselves up to be hurt and broken and rejected again. So they'll try to turn away because they don't see a loving God. They don't.

They don't hang around long enough to have that Zacchaeus encounter, a Zacchaeus encounter as possible for anybody who will come and see Jesus. He met him under that tree, and he didn't say, zacchaeus, clean it up and I'll come over. Turner Burns. He didn't say that. He said, zacchaeus, that must be a guest in your home today.

And that loving, that loving encounter with the God who accepted him even in his brokenness, produced a change in him that was incredible.

And when people have that mindset, they think, what good do I have to offer?

When they see themselves as somebody that God maybe tolerates and don't see themselves as somebody with a gift that can earn a return. They see themselves as somebody that has nothing to offer. Listen, he was upset at the third servant because he didn't even try. And all he had was his excuses. And his excuses didn't even make sense.

The third servant's problem started with an unhealthy fear of God that the first two didn't seem to have. There's a healthy fear of God and a distorted view of God that leads to doubt and distrust. Zacchaeus had a healthy fear.

His immediate reaction of awe and wonder of the God of love and accept, of love and acceptance created in him a response to remove the sins of greed and selfishness and give into the kingdom of God. That's what a true encounter with Christ produces. He had an immediate change that produced a feeling of contentment or a healthy fear and wonder that built trust and produced change. Zacchaeus is a great example of true repentance. He experienced freedom from the penalty of his sin and the power that it has over his life.

I think part of the problem we have is the same problem that they had, and we're confused about some kingdom principles. Jesus left us with a gift, a gift that starts with repentance but produces kingdom principles in our lives, our callings, our gifts, our resources, the sphere of influence he gives us, and most definitely our obedience. And he's instructed us to invest it and earn a return until he comes back.

He ain't come back yet, so the instructions haven't changed.

This is a parable about three servants that were given that gift and then asked to invest it to produce fruit for the kingdom of God till he returns.

But the third guy didn't do anything with it. And the king's response is, you wicked servant.

His wickedness was his fear, his disobedience, his refusal to do something with what he was given, and his distorted view of the king.

There comes a point in our walk where we have to choose facts over feelings.

When you struggle with your identity, it's going to produce feelings that are going to keep you from walking out in the plan and purpose God has for you. And there comes a time where you're going to have to lay those down and you say, you know what? This isn't about feelings. It's about facts. It's about the Word says about who I am, what the Word says, the truth of who God is.

Listen, I've struggled with this. I think we can all struggle with our identity at times.

We probably all have at times.

When I first got clean and sober. I went to a rehab in Madison, Wisconsin. This was about 20 years ago. And I went to shortly after that. After I got out, I went to a church called Mad City Church.

And it was the first church I had ever experienced life in. And the pastor of that church was Pastor Shane Holden. And Pastor Shane Holden was one of the most anointed gifting Bible teachers in the country. In my opinion, still is. Pastor's a great church in UNALASKA, WI.

In 2006, I moved up to Alaska. And in 2014, I walked through the doors of King's Chapel over on Lucille Street. And I've sat underneath the ministry of Pastor Daniel Bracken for the last 12 years, who I believe, and I think many of you would too, is one of the most anointed gifted preachers in the country. And so what can happen is. And those.

And I feel blessed for that. I feel blessed that I've got to not only experience that once, but twice. It's rare to find that kind of thing once in your life. But to. But to sit under that kind of anointing twice is a great thing.

But something can happen when God calls you to step out and he calls you to do something. We have. We can have a habit of focusing or comparing ourselves to the people we sit under. In Matthew's version of this parable, everybody was given. The servants were given a portion of wealth according to their ability.

And so we can see ourselves as a one talent person. And maybe somebody else is a ten talent person. And when God calls us to do what he's called us to do, we say, lord, I can't do that. Because we have our eyes focused on the 10 talent person. We're saying, God, I can't do that because I don't have that kind of talent.

I struggled with this when I first started in transformation. It was time to me to. For me to start preaching. I would think of Pastor Shane and then I would come to church on Sunday and I would see Pastor Daniel and I would see this whole preaching experience going on and the depth of the Word and the Holy Spirit fire. And he's standing up on chairs and he's the Holy Spirit swinging all over.

I'm like, I can't do that. I can't do that. And I'm like, what is he singing? My own children don't even love me when I'm singing. I can't do that, Lord.

I can't do that, Lord. And he's like, I never asked you to, Eric. I Never asked you to. If I wanted another one of him in that position, I would raise one up.

If you see yourself as a one one talent person, a one minor person, give it to him. Take that one minor and give it to him. Because one thing we learned from both of those parables is that he'll multiply it if you're willing to trust him. Don't let the fear or the comparison of who you think. And you know what?

That's our perception. Your perception is you're a one talent person and you think you see other people that are 10 talent persons. That's just your perception. That's not truth. You don't know what God gave you or them.

We're going to have to trust them. And I'm going to tell you, it's going to be worth it. I was overwhelmed when I first came up here because this is a milestone for me to be preaching here.

When I thank you. When I walked through those doors 12 years ago, the thought of me standing in front of you preaching was absurd.

Oh, what he'll do.

We're going to have to trust him. We're going to have to trust him because we're going to have a sit down with him. The sit down's coming. Jesus is telling us that he's given us the answers to the final exam.

Listen, this isn't so fun to preach. This isn't the message I wanted to be. I wanted to preach, Zacchaeus. I'm a first chance to preach in the big church. God, I'm preaching, Zacchaeus.

He said, no, you're not. Come on. I love preaching, Zacchaeus. I can do it. Well, I've done it several times.

Let me do it. So, no, I want you to preach this. And I do love this parable, but it's not what I wanted to preach. I wanted to preach something full of grace and full of. Full of transformation power.

But he said, I want to preach. I want you to preach this. And I listened because I'm going to have that sit down and I'm going to answer for what I did when he told me what to do and what I did with what he gave me. And he gave me this word to share with you tonight, so I'm gonna give it.

And as I was preparing this word at my dining room table where I prepare my messages for transformations and for prison ministry, and I have the most amazing times with God in those moments where I'm preparing these messages. And there was no different when I was preparing this one. And I was in my kitchen. Because I'll get up and I'll be praying and writing and preaching. And I was preaching in my kitchen to my fridge.

My fridge is going to be in heaven. My fridge has got saved many times. Our oven's going to be in heaven. Our dishwasher's going to Haiti. So ain't it.

That thing's got a spirit of disobedience like nothing else but. So I'm in my kitchen and I'm. I'm preaching this. And God is touching me, and. And.

And it happens so often. These are my best times with him. And then I have this experience.

And I hear him clearly. And he says, do you remember the night you met me, Eric? I said, lord, I will never forget that night. You know that. I will never forget it.

And he said, do you remember what I gave you that night? I said, yeah, Lord, you gave me hope.

When I was at my lowest point, when I was strung out, I was empty. I thought I had no future. Lord, when I hated myself and I hated My life is where you met me. And for a moment, you allowed me to see myself the way you saw me. And it produced in me a hope that maybe my life could be different.

As a matter of fact, I know it could be. And in that hope, I had no idea how, Lord, but I believed you. That my life could be different. That I could have some of those things that I wanted when I was a boy. That I could be maybe a loving father and a husband.

And I could be a good man that I could be proud of. Lord, you gave me hope. He said, yeah, I gave you hope. What else? I said, you gave me your word.

Just as that. That verse about Jabez out of Second Chronicles changed my life. Lord, I knew that through your Word I would always have an access to. To know the truth about who you are, Lord. That through your Word I could always find the answers to the things that plagued my life.

That through your word I could find out more about who you are and more about who I was. And that through your Word I was always have an anchor of truth to take with me. And that through your Word I would learn more about what it means to be in relationship with you. And what it means to be a servant of you. You gave me your word.

Yeah, I gave you my word. I gave you hope. I gave you my word. What else? Forgiveness.

Lord, you said if I would repent of my sin, that I would be cleansed. I would be made perfectly holy in that moment, that I wouldn't have to carry the guilt and shame of what I had done. But more than that, through that holiness, I could house your spirit.

Yeah. I gave you forgiveness. What else? Your spirit. You gave me your spirit.

I didn't understand that at the time. That one took me a while to get, Lord. But I knew after the forgiveness came your spirit. Because I had been cleansed, I'd been perfectly whole. And your spirit could come and live on the inside of me.

It was by the power of that spirit that I would find freedom from the addictions and the perversions and the things in my life that had plagued it. From the things that had kept me bound. The things that had brought me to a place where I hated myself and I hated my life. It was through the power of that spirit, Lord, that I would find freedom.

Yeah. I gave you my spirit. What else? You gave me eternal life. You said that no matter what I go through in this world, it would only be for a season.

Because I have eternity with you. And it's assured. Because as surely as I've been saved by your blood, I've been accepted by you.

And if I would walk with you through this thing and see it to the end, I could walk with you forever. Yeah. That's it, Eric. That's the night. That's the night I'm talking about.

You got it. I gave you even more things than that. But those are the big ones. I gave you all those things. And do you remember?

I asked you to do something, Eric. I asked you to do something that night. Do you remember what it was? Yeah. Lord, you asked me to take that message to people who were still stuck.

Stuck in the same place I was. To be your hand extended to a lost and dying world to. Just as Bruce Wilkerson wrote that book that changed my life, that I could take the message of what you did to me to other people and change theirs. Lord, you asked me to take the message that you gave me, to take the gift that you gave me and to give it to others. Yeah, I did.

And as I'm having this experience, I don't hear a thundering voice, but almost a smile and a piece on his face. And he says, so how did it go? So how did it go?

As I'm experiencing this, I'm in. I've never had the reality of what that's going to feel like more than I had in that moment. That I'm going to have to give him an answer. That I'm going to give him an answer. And I'm almost like, don't you know, you know.

You already know. You're going to make me say it. And he stood there making me say it. I had to tell him what I had done with what he had given me. And in that moment, I'm thinking, what can I possibly.

What excuse can I possibly give him for doing nothing that isn't going to sound as ridiculously stupid as that third servant who said, I was afraid of you and you're a hard man, when I just told him he had given me forgiveness, he had given me his spirit, he had given me hope, he had given me life, he had given me everything. What can I tell him for doing anything less than. Than my best, for what he's asked me to do that isn't going to sound just as ridiculous as this third servant? And the reality of the moment we're going to face became a reality to me in my kitchen when I was doing this. And I'm like, lord, I want to give him something in that moment.

I want to be able to tell him something.

And the reality of what am I going to tell him in that moment? More importantly, what are you going to tell him? He asked me to bring this message to you.

What are you going to tell them in that moment?

Look at me. Look at me. I want everybody to look at me. Look at me. There's going to be a test.

It's been written down. You can use your notes on the test, but the only answers you're going to be able to give in that day is what you're doing right now. That's the reality of it.

The good news, there's some good news here, too. Oh, it's all good news. Come on. If you're in a place where you're like, yeah, yeah, but I'm like the third servant man. I haven't.

I haven't given. I haven't done. I haven't done what he's asked me to do. The good news is he hasn't come back yet. So that means there's still time.

You can change that. Right now, Pastor Daniel's doing a series on David. And the one thing and he's pointed out, and you can see it in David's life, is when he gets off course, he recalibrates himself in alignment with God. And that's always an option for us. He gives us the ability to repent, to get back in align with his will, and to start producing.

So if you're in that place where you're like, I got nothing to give him in that moment, I would get. I would recalibrate, and I would get to it. Because we don't know when he's coming back, but he ain't back yet. So it means you still got time today. I don't know if there'll be tomorrow, but you got today.

The first step is accepting him as your savior, just as I did that night. I muttered out some sort of. Some sort of repentance prayer. I accepted him as my savior. And that night, 22 years ago changed my existence, my eternity.

And it started me on a path that's led me here so far. I expect even greater things because that's just who he is. The first step is accepting him as your savior. And if you have not done that tonight, if you have not done that yet in your life or if you've drifted, you want to rededicate yourself tonight, say, you know what? I hear you, and I need to get back.

I need to recalibrate. Just like David did. I need to recalibrate tonight. I'm going to ask you to lift your hand. If you want to.

If it's your first time or you want to rededicate yourself, rededicate your life, just lift your hand, and I'm going to lead you guys into prayer. The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that he is Lord and he's been raised, that you will be saved. And so we preach messages to stir a belief in your heart, just like I had that hope implanted into me that night. We preach messages so that that you would have faith stirred in your heart. And then I lead you in a prayer, as is custom in our church, to help you with the confession of faith.

It's not a matter of having some set of magic words. It's the confession of his Lordship through your mouth. So I'm going to ask you guys to repeat after me. Say, lord, I thank you that you sent your son, Jesus Christ to die for me. I repent of my sin, and I give you my life.

And I thank you, Lord, for hearing my prayer.

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.